The new Labour leader is enjoying an extended honeymoon as prime minister after unexpectedly taking the top job from Jacinda Ardern.
The DIY-loving, sausage roll-eating, exer-cycling single dad makes an unlikely national leader.
He might also be Labour's ticket to a third term, which had seemed a dubious prospect as time ticked down on Ms Ardern's tenure.
Kiwis go to the polls on October 14, and Labour is locked in a tight race with centre-right opposition National.
Under Ms Ardern, Labour produced its biggest election win since World War2 in 2020, polled above 40 percent through 2021, but dipped into the 30s and behind National in 2022.
"People were ready to move on," one party campaigner tells AAP.
It's just no one expected to move on to Mr Hipkins, and no one expected him to be so popular.
In the aftermath of the shock leadership transfer, he led Opposition Leader Christopher Luxon by one point in preferred prime minister polling.
Now, Mr Hipkins leads by 10.
Other indicators have improved: Labour now holds a narrow lead in the party vote, and government approval is trending upwards.
In his first interview with an international outlet since taking office, Mr Hipkins projects cautious optimism on the poll results.
"It was pleasant," he tells AAP.
"You'd certainly prefer to start that way than to start with people going, 'oh I can't stand him'. So it was nice. It was encouraging."
Pleasant sums up Mr Hipkins to a tee.
The 44-year-old is affable but lacks Ms Ardern's charisma or inspirational qualities.
On recent school visits he battled awkward silences, and on trips to cyclone-ravaged regions he struggled to connect with Kiwis in the way Ms Ardern was famed for.
Party bosses clearly think Mr Hipkins has work to do lifting his profile: in a recent leaflet, the suited leader is pictured next to the heading, "Kia ora, I'm Chris".
There's little doubt what he stands for: "bread and butter" issues, a tagline repeated ad nauseam.
Mr Hipkins has pared back the government's agenda and tacked towards the political centre, focusing on cost of living issues.
This refreshed platform is consistent with Mr Hipkins' political brand: a safe pair of hands.
A comparison can be made to Anthony Albanese, both plain-spoken leaders with working-class roots.
In Mr Hipkins' case, those roots lay in the Hutt Valley, the downtrodden northern region of Wellington, where the Remutaka MP has lived his entire life.
He is also a rarity in politics: a single dad prime minister.
Mr Hipkins has a six-year-old son and a four-year-old daughter with his former partner Jade, from whom he separated last year.
The bachelor prime minister says he isn't looking for love - "the job doesn't leave a lot of time for other stuff" - but he has a date for the King's coronation next week.
"I'm taking Christopher Luxon," he laughs, before resetting and describing the toughness of combining politics and parenthood.
"Time outside of work is largely focused on my kids. My kids are still very young so I want to spend that time with them ... there's no question it's hard to be anything better than an average parent when you're doing this job."
Another tidbit Kiwis knew about Mr Hipkins - his love of sausage rolls - is now coming back to haunt him.
The pastry treat is now on the prime minister's menu with great frequency in his travels across the country, as if he was a judge on the Great New Zealand Sausage Roll Bake Off.
"It's fun. It's nice," he insists, "I wasn't kidding when I said I like sausage roll."
In the new job, the keen cyclist is also struggling to commute on bike, forcing him find exercise where he can.
"It's more likely to be the exer-cycle in the living room at home, because it'll be dark or it'll be late. An outdoor bike ride just requires a lot more organisation now," he said.
"It definitely took a while to get used to it. I'm in the zone now."
Mr Hipkins was never touted as leader until January, when Ms Ardern announced her exit and quickly ruled out deputy Grant Robertson as a replacement.
A shocked caucus soon settled on the loyal lieutenant and Ardern ally, best known for his efforts as COVID-19 minister.
That was not an easy post, becoming synonymous with an increasingly unpopular pandemic response, including mandates, opening and closing the trans-Tasman bubble, and fronting decisions over delayed vaccines, lockdowns and border woes.
Mr Hipkins believes those calls have, with time, earned him respect.
"Naturally we carry some political baggage from that," he said.
"But we also carry that experience which we can then apply to the challenges that are in front of us. That actually sets us up quite well."
The hurdles to a third term are still mighty.
Labour has picked up plenty of barnacles in office, relentlessly accused by the opposition of wasteful spending or bungled infrastructure.
Economic conditions favour National, with Labour presiding over high inflation (though receding from 7.2 per cent to 6.7 per cent in the last CPI figures), and an economy which contracted in the last quarter.
A Labour win would also defy electoral history.
None of the six prime ministers to inherit the job mid-term since WWII has won the following election.
"It's a challenge. There's no question about that," Mr Hipkins said.
"We can lead New Zealand through this current economic difficulty coming out the other side better and stronger. That's going to require experienced political leadership which I can deliver."
Just don't expect Ms Ardern to be involved.
After her mic drop, the 42-year-old removed herself from the public arena to make space for her close friend.
Labour fundraised off her valedictory speech, asking members to donate or buy a commemorative tea towel, but she isn't expected to return to the campaign trail.
"I don't think she's going to be in the country," Mr Hipkins said, referring to Ms Ardern's Harvard University fellowships which begin in August.
Would Mr Hipkins like Ms Ardern to pitch in and be involved?
"If she wants to be, but I mean, I haven't really spoken to her about it," he says, showing the distance from New Zealand's heady days of Jacindamania.
